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10 Important Lessons I Taught My Toddler to Make Her Independent and Responsible
Time flies in a blink of an eye; when I look back, I have such happy memories of my little girl, when she was growing up. When she was an infant, I always thought when she would reach the toddler stage, because I thought that’s the stage when children become sincere polite and can feed themselves independently. However, things don’t take place the way we want them to.
The Reason That Made Me Teach Her Good Habits From Early On!
One day I was sitting on my balcony when she had just learnt how to walk, and that made her crazy as she wanted to explore everything. She came to me and asked for my phone; I ignored her request, so in response, she started hitting me and crying loudly. It made me disappointed for a moment, but I couldn’t have done anything because she was just a kid. But I took it upon me – to teach her, what is wrong and right. I decided that I will teach her the best habits that can help her in future because being a mother, I knew I was and will always be her first teacher. Moreover, when a child is in their toddler stage, it is the best time to teach and train them everything good and basic. During this time, they learn things quickly with their sharp mind, which is more active than us.
The First Lesson
I started role-plays with her as they kept her cheerful, and through these role-plays, I taught her how to speak to elders. Although she couldn’t speak clearly, she at least tried. As I live with my in-law, so I had to teach her to respect her dada and dadi. My efforts were working undoubtedly. It took me a week to train her, but the outcome was worth it, as she had started adding ‘Ji‘ as a suffix and made everyone smile. Now she responds with ‘Haanji’ to every question. This was a bonus for me.
The Second Lesson
Whenever she woke up in the morning, I asked her to wish good morning to everyone and she thought this is a game, so she loved to wish all. And when it was time for bed, she used to wish goodnight to everyone. The same practice took approximately 10 days to make her perfect.
I wanted her to eat her food independently without seeking any support. I knew it would be hard, because she was only one-and-a-half-year-old and a fussy eater. Nevertheless, I took that risk. Being a mother is kind of a tough job but sometimes we have to be strong. She was eating only one-third of what she used to eat and this continued for next 3-4 days but surprisingly after the fourth day, she ate better and after ten days, she started eating independently and loved to eat freely. There is one line I heard from one of my friends, “Insaan ka bacha hai, bhukh toh lagegi aur khayega bhi.” Thankfully, it would our for me.